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Customer’s lawsuits for alleged harm done from experiences with products and services are frequently attacked as frivolous by some elected government officials and company executives. “Tort reform” legislature is an attempt to weaken consumers’ abilities to successfully receive redress in the legal system for alleged harms experienced from products and services. Critics of “tort reform” refer to new legal restrictions against lawsuits as “tort deform.” The movie documentary, Hot Coffee, presents three detailed case studies relating to tort reform (deform). Take 2:28 minutes to watch the trailer of the movie at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBKRjxeQnT4. Doing so is a useful preparation for interpreting the following case reported in this chapter. A mother drove her daughter to Wonder’s Best Burger for an apple pie and a hot chocolate. After the mother got the food, she returned to her car and gave it to her daughter. The kid was excited, so she immediately opened the hot chocolate. Unfortunately, a tragedy occurred as the hot chocolate scalded her. The mother, holding her daughter, rushed into Wonder’s Best Burger and argued with an employee about her kid being scalded.

AS ALWAYS, at this the beginning of a New Year, we are incurably optimistic. Our credo can be summed up in one word: chiliasm, a belief that times will get better.

Argues that so‐called practical approaches to management are misguided since they tend to assume that practical matters can be considered separately from, and prior to, theoretical analysis and reflection. Making a call for a more explicitly theoretical approach to management, makes suggestions for reshaping management thinking.

Academic scholarship on the White Australia Policy (WAP) has highlighted the history of Asian migration, early perceptions and policy-making initiatives. Prominent scholars have also pointed out the impact of the British Empire and WAP on Australia–India relations and early Indian migrants in Australia. Drawing on the debate concerning international students in Australia, our purpose in this article is to recover the role of Indian students in the story of Australian–Indian connections.

The article aims to highlight the reasons behind the involvement of the Australian government in the provision of scholarships and fellowships to Indian students and researchers at Australian universities during the period of WAP. To achieve this, it uses contemporary Australian newspaper reports to explore the popular representations of sponsored Indian students and researchers in Australia from 1901 to 1950.

The article concludes that the prevalence of this racially discriminatory immigration policy created a dissatisfaction among Indians, and some Australian sources of agitation, that helped chip away at the Australian government’s admission policies and the gradual demise of WAP.

This article contributes to the historiography and the effects of colonialism on Australian–Indian relations and debates on policy formation based on ideas of whiteness.

Realism is emerging as a paradigm for research and explanation in the natural and social sciences. A realist framework is elaborated and applied to the four possible situations that may generate the observations of randomised, controlled trials. It is demonstrated that by using two realist concepts “mechanism” and “context” a number of misinterpretations of such trials from within the dominant empiricist paradigm may be rectified. Evidence based medicine should adopt realism to temper a misleading empiricism, this will involve relegating statistical arguments to their proper subsidiary place and adopting an adequate theory of causation.

“A knowledge of different literatures is the best way to free one's self from the tyranny of any of them.” Jose Marti, Cuban writer, poet and statesman.

Aim: To assess the potential for improved clinical effectiveness through the use of research‐based evidence in obstetric care. Design: A questionnaire survey to obtain evidence about (i) the usage of reviews of controlled perinatal trials, and (ii) the attitudes of professionals towards the reviews and their practice, relating to 27 areas of clinical care addressed by the reviews. Subjects and setting: All doctors and midwives working in two teaching hospital maternity units (Units X and Y). Main outcome measures: The use of the reviews. For each of the 27 areas of clinical care, (i) whether a majority of professionals were in agreement with research‐based evidence, and (ii) how perceived current practice compared with research‐based evidence. Results: For most areas of clinical care (21/27 in unit X, 20/27 in unit Y) a majority of professionals agreed with the research‐based evidence. However, for a large proportion of these areas (16/21 in unit X, 12/20 in unit Y), practice appeared to be inconsistent with research‐based evidence. Conclusion: There is a considerable opportunity to improve clinical effectiveness, as in many of the areas of care examined professionals agree with research‐based evidence, but clinical practice appears to be inconsistent. The approach used in this study could be used to help develop practices for promoting clinical effectiveness.

Reviews NHS policy for the introduction of new technology and drug developments into the NHS with reference to HIV therapy. Also reviews current policy issues related to NHS rationing and priority setting with reference to commissioning services for HIV infection and AIDS. Confirms the destabilisation of HIV contracts in the North East of England caused by the introduction of double therapy in 1996 and triple therapy in 1997 in relation to the above policy areas. Also reviews purchaser and provider contracting following the introduction of triple therapy for HIV infection. Finally, concludes by reviewing local policy and management arrangements and recommendations for change.

Microfluidic or “lab‐on‐a‐chip” technology is seen as a key enabler in the rapidly expanding market for medical point‐of‐care and other kinds of portable diagnostic device. The purpose of this paper is to discuss two proposed packaging processes for large‐scale manufacture of microfluidic systems.

In the first packaging process, polymer overmoulding of a microfluidic chip is used to form a fluidic manifold integrated with the device in a single step. The anticipated advantages of the proposed method of packaging are ease of assembly and low part count. The second process involves the use of low‐frequency induction heating (LFIH) for the sealing of polymer microfluidics. The method requires no chamber, and provides fast and selective heating to the interface to be joined.

Initial work with glass microfluidics demonstrates feasibility for overmoulding through two separate sealing principles. One uses the overmould as a physical support structure and providing sealing using a compliant ferrule. The other relies on adhesion between the material of the overmould and the microfluidic device to provide a seal. As regards LFIH work on selection and structuring of susceptor materials is reported, together with analysis of the dimensions of the heat‐affected zone. Acrylic plates are joined using a thin (<10 μm) nickel susceptor providing a fluid seal that withstands a pressure of 590 kPa.

Microfluidic chips have until now been produced in relatively small numbers. To scale‐up from laboratory systems to the production volumes required for mass markets, packaging methods need to be adapted to mass manufacture.

This chapter examines cultural value creation through the 24 Carrot Gardens Project. Initiated by artist and curator Kirsha Kaechele of the Museum of Old and New Art, the vision of 24 Carrot Gardens is to ‘sow seeds of lifelong learning’ in the areas of health, well-being and sustainability across school communities in Tasmania, Australia. What has eventuated over its five years is a complex relationship between the artful ‘gold standard’ delivered by professional artists and a contemporary art museum with an integrated teaching and site-based learning across the arts and sciences. Designed in response to the local environmental, cultural and socio-economic context, 24 Carrot Gardens has contributed to a growing sense of community engagement, interdisciplinary learning and a strong foundation of networked donor investment. With these multilayered interests across a diversity of stakeholders and partnerships, many competing systems of value are at play, with the potential to contribute a new value creation. Firsthand accounts of project contributors are situated amongst the scholarly literature to produce an examination of value exchange and creation including the cultural values identified in 24 Carrot Gardens: artistic and creative, economic and industrial and education and environmental. Following this interrogation of the expressed values in this case study, we offer a foundation for a new framework for understanding local cultural value.